8. MARYAN STREET (Labour) Link to this
to the Minister of Health
Has he made any recent announcements about the general practitioner workforce?
Hon PETE HODGSON (Minister of Health) Link to this
Yes. The Government has increased the places in the general practitioner education programme by 50 percent, starting from early next year. It is also possible that there will be a further increase from 2009, but the Government first needs to weigh the need, the cost, and especially the capacity a bit more closely before making that decision.
In the early 1990s National cut the general practitioner education programme in half, on the grounds that “the market” would provide. The market did not provide. My colleague Annette King increased the intake a little in 2002, as I did again at the beginning of this year. But from February next year we will be training the highest number of general practitioners ever trained in this country.
Hon Tony RyallIs it the Government’s intention to proceed with a medical training board, or does the Government have alternative ideas?
It is the Government’s intention to proceed with a medical training board. We will probably call it a health training board, but its first task will be to progress undergraduate training. I might just say parenthetically, as the member raises the issue, that last December my colleague the Minister of Finance increased funding to medical schools by 40 percent and increased funding to dental schools by something closer to 50 percent. We can contrast that with the “mother of all Budgets”, where, in the small print, dental school funding was cut by 40 percent.
I seek leave to table official documents that show there are fewer general practitioners today than there were when this Government started.
Madam SPEAKER